"I have started training" - HS Prannoy eyes return to court after injury setback
Led by HS Prannoy and the duo of Satwik Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, the Indian men's team at the Asian Games looked like they were on the verge of pulling off another historical feat - beating China in China.
But just as fans got their hopes up that the country would finally have its badminton Asiad gold, Prannoy had to pull out of the finals due to an excruciatingly painful back injury.
While the 31-year-old eventually came back to action for the individual events of the Asian Games, he has been forced to take time away from tournaments since then to rest his back.
In an interview with PTI, HS Prannoy has given every Indian badminton enthusiast something to cheer about, as he said he was back to training.
"(I am) just taking it a little slowly, not rushing up on the injury side. I would say it is pretty better than how it was during the Asian Games, I have started training also. I will have to look how things pan up in the next few tournaments."
This injury couldn't have come at a more inconvenient time for the BWF World Championships bronze medalist. With the qualification for the 2024 Paris Olympics still going on, time away from court can prove to be costly for Prannoy.
"That is the biggest problem in badminton as such, where the qualification period is until April 30th. The toughest job is to qualify in badminton — we have to be in the top 16 in world rankings," HS Prannoy said at a collaboration announcement with the Federal Bank.
"That is one big issue when we come into an Olympic cycle when we cannot pick and choose much, we will have to play in a lot of tournaments to make sure you are in that safe zone," he added
HS Prannoy breaks down India's medal chances at Paris
Indian athletes have been setting new records and achieving new highs every year in sports. Whether it's Neeraj Chopra becoming the first Indian to win a gold at the World Athletics Championships, or the Indian men's badminton team racing to gold at the most recent Thomas Cup, the country is doing better than ever.
HS Prannoy was of the same opinion, as he said:
"The next few years look very promising. Definitely, we have been on the rise since the last 10 years, big medals coming in from big events — in every single cycle of Asian Games, Commonwealth Games or Olympics — we have been able to get medals."
India's chances of another badminton medal at the Olympics also look very promising. So far, India has been on the podium for the sport in all of the previous three games, but never more than once (in a single Olympics) and never better than a silver.
"Looking at the Paris Olympics, (I am) very optimistic that we have a very strong badminton squad out there for medal prospects, we have men’s singles, men’s doubles and women’s singles also which are very strong and we can always bank on for a medal," HS Prannoy said.
This Olympics might be different for the Indian contingent, with the shuttlers looking better and stronger than ever before.